Could You Google Bomb Google Flu?
from the would-you-want-to? dept
Google got a lot of attention recently for the launch of Google Flu Trends, which looks at aggregate data on searches related to the flu, to see if it can act as something of an early warning system for where there are flu problems. It's an interesting use of the data, and it will be worth watching what else can be done with this sort of data over time. However, Ed Felten raises an interesting question: can Google Flu Trends be manipulated? The idea is that, right now, it may be accurate, but the very fact that people know Google is tracking this information, could create incentives to game that info -- in the same way people have tried gaming Google in other ways for years, using tricks such as Google bombing. While you might not think there would be that many reasons to manipulate Google Flu Trends, there could be reasons to do so. Google is being somewhat secretive of how Flu Trends is set up, so perhaps that makes it more difficult to manipulate, but it does point to an interesting issue in using data in this manner. As soon as you've set up a system to measure the data, and made that public, is the data still reliable?![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: google bomb, google flu
Companies: google
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
either side?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Outbreaks
Plus if google trends were that reliable then comparing the correlation of searches for "Zombies" and "Shotguns" in comparison to actual zombie outbreaks reveals accurate patterns. But I know that can't be right because its currently showing search traffic doubled in the last 12 months for "Zombies" in Australia...
Oh god wait, I can't ^^oia$hdFsjh;as&oIHdlkhl
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The diarrhea runs brown in Beverly Hills
google flu 90210 diarrhea like a river
(90210 is the zip code for Beverly Hills, California. God help me - I need a life)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Certainly
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
you have to destroy the heads.... where is my shovel???
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Particle/Wave Duality extends beyond quantum physics?
Data mining (might) have a similar paradox. The information is there, and truthfully accurate right up to the point that we start looking at it. But, by simply looking at the data, we may be corrupting the future data. Keeping the fact that the data is being examined private, or making it public, doesn't change the fact that the data will be corrupted. It only changes to what extent the data will be corrupted.
Interesting...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Particle/Wave Duality extends beyond quantum physics?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Particle/Wave Duality extends beyond quantum physics?
or (possibly) the Heisenberg uncertainty principle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Particle/Wave Duality extends beyond quantum physics?
I stopped reading at summery.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Particle/Wave Duality extends beyond quantum physics?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If you download the Google historic data you see a huge peak in 2003. Recall that this was the year of the vaccine shortage due to contamination, but not a huge year for flu cases. Just shows other factors (media) can affect results.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
newsflash: flutrends not a google invention
NEWSFLASH: The idea to look at search data as early warning systems for flu outbreaks is not a Google invention, but was actually already proposed over 3 years ago (published 2006), by researchers from the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation and U of T.
Eysenbach G. Infodemiology: tracking flu-related searches on the web for syndromic surveillance. AMIA Annu Symp Proc 2006:244-248
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=17238340
Eysenbach G. Infodemiology and Infoveillance: Framework for an Emerging Set of Public Health Informatics Methods to Analyze Search, Communication and Publication Behavior on the Internet
J Med Internet Res 2009;11(1):e11
URL: http://www.jmir.org/2009/1/e11
The Virus Chasers
http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/35061.html
CIHR Newsarticle (2007) about the infodemiology / infoveillance work at the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation in Toronto
[ link to this | view in chronology ]